We, your fellow email nerds, would just like to pop in and inform you of all the exciting new things coming to the best email blog in the world. We are hard at work to create the most enthusiastic and informative blog on email marketing. There’s not many out there.

Here’s what’s coming soon to a blog near you.

We will be adding an extremely useful section on getting started. Not in the deep end, but in the shallow end. It will be a section full of baby step by baby step articles on getting started with a newsletter. These will be trickling in little by little in the very near future. Look for the changes in the tabs.

Ahhh, who are we? Who are the email ninjas behind iloveemail.org? Patience is indeed a virtue, and so is curiosity (I don’t think it is, but still), and that’s why we’re revealing the full truth in the even nearer future. Keep your eyes open and aware for the “Who Are We?” tab. We’re including some exciting new pictures of us too, but we had to leave the ninja suits behind for this one. Next time maybe.

Not sure if your newsletter is the best thing since sliced bread or kryptonite to our eyes? Our up and coming solution will solve all of your newsletter woes. And… it’s free. Just wait for it.

Yes, the world of email marketing is a changing one. It’s one big puzzle. We’re going to help you see the picture on the puzzle you’re putting together, and then help you put it together. These are just a few of the brilliant things to come and we’re really excited about them. Keep checking in with us. And keep up with us on Twitter and Facebook.

I spent a few days in Borås, Sweden, and had the chance to get in on the program for the Distanshandelsdagen (E-commerce Day). This day is really important because a whole melting pot of e-marketers and e-marketing providers are there. And the meat and potatoes on the discussion table was basically everything that’s important to the development of e-commerce. Which is exciting.

Just over 800 people were there. And at this point, I’m sure you know that I am a perfect email nerd. In this crazy email frenzy, I was hunting for any and all email providers who I knew to be working hard to lift up and improve Nordic email marketing. But to my complete and utter dismay… I found one, uno, yes people the number 1… email provider on the floor. Who? Compost! (No, it’s not a farming company).

There are four of us at “Nordic eCommerce Knowledge” that will be organizing the Nordic eCommerce Summit in Stockholm in May 2011 – that’s why I know that Compost is the only provider that has taken the initiative completely of themselves to have a part in the Summit.

Compost was also at the Distanshandelsdagen in Borås, and they did a pretty awesome job with shining a light on the positive side of email marketing.

After this, I’m pretty sure that the thirst for knowledge about email marketing, integration, transaction email, and email with social media couldn’t be any stronger in any other industry than within the world of email and e-commerce.

Thank you Robert, Vegar, Apu, Sara and Felipe for showing all of your enthusiasm for email marketing!

Ahh, Etsy, you know…you truly are dear to me. How I browse the myriads of handmade trinkets and organics to the wee hours of the night. Distracting myself with the countless pages of Apple protective apparatus. I then hand over my precious currency across the information highway, into your many users’ hands.

Aside from the nerd poetry written above, it would be accurate to say that Etsy is an exciting new world. If you don’t know what Etsy is, take a peek at their website. It’s basically a buffet of handmade everything. But if you’re an Etsy regular, and get their newsletter, this will be familiar.

Etsy’s newsletter is… nice. I actually really like it. I’ve been signed up for a while now, and I’ve seen it go through quite a few changes. But let’s talk about how it is now.

There are three great things Etsy does that I want to point out.

1: Themes. All of their newsletters have themes. Have a peek:

I like the themes because of this: It helps me decide if I want to set aside time to look at it or not. I’ll be honest, the “Farm Fresh” newsletter… didn’t read it. But “Man Cave”? Read it. They have an “Etsy” newsletter, and then they have “Etsy Dudes”, which of course is for us closet Etsy zealots who happen to be men.

I think this is good because it creates focus. With themes, we know beforehand what we’re about to look at. Etsy comes out victorious with keeping their focus, and this is throughout the whole “Etsy experience”.

They have some pretty hefty icons at the bottom for Facebook, Twitter and email. I’m a firm believer in picture tiles and icons, text is so boring, and people don’t want to shuffle their eyes through lines and lines of text and links. Etsy has a good grasp on icons and picture tiles, they use them a lot.

3: They have the support from all the Etsy employees. Look hard:

This one by far is the most powerful. It reminds me of this article. Etsy has different employees collect their favorite items throughout the website, and then they compile them in a newsletter. They used to have a picture and the name of the person who picked the items (here’s the old one), now it’s just the name of the person which doubles as a link attached to the employees website bio/profile. This creates enthusiasm from within the company, which filters to the reader and creates a personal attachment with the Etsy employees and the reader. This is brilliant – everyone at Etsy is involved this way. The employees who pick, no longer just work there, they contribute their opinion. They see their picks being sent to thousands of inboxes. Would that make you feel valued at your job? What about enthusiastic? Yes sir, I think so. But Etsy? How about the pictures of the “pickers” again?

It’s not all rainbows and butterflies though. Three things I would like to see change, or rethought.

1: The newsletter literally comes almost every day. Can we do something about that? It used to come once a week or so. That was good. But now with everyday, you lose a lot of that anticipation factor. You gain the “Oh, didn’t I just get one?” factor. Honestly, I don’t read them anymore. Before, I got excited about reading them. Now? Not so much. Etsy? This has to change.

2: Signing up for the newsletter should be more obvious. Try to find the sign up link in the picture below. The average person doesn’t think about newsletters, and they don’t know that they want them. So to assume your average person will find the newsletter without it being obvious… is silly. I actually had to hunt around for the newsletter button. And if I have to hunt for it, how will the average person find it? I want a huge button on the front page.

3: Clutter. The newsletter is cluttered. It hasn’t always been though. Now it’s a series of picture tiles in different sizes, with other themes within the already themed newsletter. There’s just too much happening on the page, too much to see, too much to focus on, too much to be interested in. One theme is perfect, if people want to see more categories of items, they can go to the website. Put it on a diet.

Etsy has a nice newsletter, one you’d expect from a handmade products website. Their newsletter is obviously going through some change, it’s changed many times in the last year. They seem to be exploring and trying to find their nesting area. However, I hope they don’t lay down to rest where they are now. I’ll keep you updated on the whirlwind world of Etsy. There is more to be said on Etsy.